IDF vows ‘no relief or respite’ for Hezbollah; 440 terror operatives killed in ground op

The Israel Defense Forces continued its campaign to degrade Hezbollah in Lebanon on Saturday as it targeted command centers, weapons caches, tunnels and more, and as the military said it believed it had killed at least 440 Hezbollah operatives since the start of ground operations on Monday, Report informs via The Times of Israel.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said in a statement that Israel “must continue exerting pressure on Hezbollah and creating additional and lasting damage to the enemy. Without relief and without allowing a respite for the organization.”

The army said on Saturday said it had struck Hezbollah operatives overnight in a command center embedded in a mosque in southern Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil, located within the Martyr Salah Ghandour Hospital compound.

According to the military, the operatives were using the command room “to plan and carry out acts of terror against IDF troops and the State of Israel.”

The IDF said the drone strike was “precise” and based on intelligence.

Before carrying out the strike, the IDF said it sent text messages to residents and called up officials in the nearby villages “demanding that all acts of terror carried out at the hospital cease immediately.”

Meanwhile, three people were lightly injured as a result of a Hezbollah rocket impact in the northern Israeli Arab village of Deir al-Asad, police and medics said. They were taken to Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya.

The Magen David Adom emergency service said it had treated 10 people for acute anxiety after the rocket hit Deir al-Asad.